Researcher

Kary Mullis

Profile

Kary Mullis was an American biochemist who received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), one of the most transformative and widely used techniques in all of biology and medicine. Working at Cetus Corporation in 1983, Mullis conceived of a method to exponentially amplify specific DNA sequences using repeated cycles of denaturation, primer annealing, and enzymatic extension—a process that can produce billions of copies of a target sequence from a single molecule. PCR revolutionized molecular biology, forensic science, diagnostics, and medicine; it is the basis for virtually all modern DNA diagnostics, including COVID-19 testing, HIV viral load monitoring, prenatal genetic diagnosis, and cancer mutation detection. The PCR-based diagnostics industry generates tens of billions of dollars annually. Mullis' invention also enabled the entire subsequent development of molecular biology as a discipline, from cloning to genome sequencing to gene expression analysis. His work at the commercial laboratory Cetus Corporation exemplifies how industrial research environments can enable transformative basic discoveries with immense societal and economic impact.

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